❖ The US Congress wants to increase the $99.9 million the White House has asked ”for anti-missile cooperation with Israel” (e.g., Arrow and David’s Sling) by $100 million (Senate) or $168 million (the House). Funds for the Iron Dome range from $210 million requested (WH), to $420 million (Senate) and $680 million (House).

❖ The long-time copacetic community comprised of the villages of Derby Line, VT and Stanstead, Quebec is being separated by rules, fences, flower pots, arrests and $5,000 fines. Video.

International Finance

❖ 200 European banks are to be put “under the direct oversight of the European Central Bank, which will act as chief supervisor of eurozone banks.”

❖ It’s “just capitalism”, says Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, praising his company’s tax avoidance. Last year, Google had £2.5 billion in sales in the UK but paid £6million in taxes; £10 billion socked away in Bermuda, saving some £2 billion in taxes. Both G8 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) intend to explore this.

Money Matters USA

❖ OR Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley just “blasted the U.S. Department of Justice for its policy of offering ‘deferred prosecution’ for large financial institutions that break federal criminal laws”. He called it “Too Big to Jail” and wants explanations.

❖ Since the federal deficit has decreased steadily from 10.1% of GDP in 2009, to 7.0 % in 2012, but unemployment seems with us for a while yet, the Wall Street Journal advises against “an overdose of instant austerity”.

❖ Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit, by law. Moreover, people paying into Social Security now are supporting the people collecting Social Security now, a repetitive pattern over generations, by design. If payments exceed income, other measures can be called into play, such as raising the income cap on contributions.

❖ Shine the light on Dark Money! NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has proposed regulations requiring “all non-profit groups that are registered in [NY] to include in annual financial reports the percentage of their spending that goes to federal, state and local electioneering.”

❖ Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) announced his Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing in 2013 “to ask the administration how it plans to handle the differences in federal and state laws on marijuana policy.”

❖ Tomorrow’s the deadline for them to officially declare their intent, but so far only 15 states have advised they will operate their own health exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.

❖ Another contentious, lengthy episode of deliberation has resulted in the publication of the American Psychiatric Association’s 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. And with that, another contentious, lengthy episode of reaction to publication of the DSM5 has commenced.

❖ US Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) “lashes out at House GOP leaders on Violence Against Women Act. “ House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and House member Eric Cantor (R-TN) are holding up the bill. Cantor objects to having tribal courts try non-Native Americans accused of raping Native Americans on tribal lands.

❖ In MS, where there is much anti-labor sentiment and where so much of the Civil Rights struggle occurred in the ’60s, the United Auto Workers is saying “worker rights is the civil rights battle of the 21st century”.

❖ What happened in MI? The Charles G. Koch and the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundations provide funds to the Mackinac Public Policy Center which is connected to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) which developed the “right-to-work” and the “emergency financial managers” bills. Also, ”real estate mogul Ron Weiser”, former chair of MI’s Republican Party and self-described “full-time” pusher of “right-to-work” laws.

❖ Discussed in the WH in March, approved by AG Eric Holder a week later: the new ability of “the National Counterterrorism Center to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to suspect them” and to share civilian databases with foreign governments.

darms, thank you so much for checking into that. It looked fine, but it surely didn’t work (the link, I mean). I believe it’ll work now and I hope so because the video is really neat. Thnx so much, including giving folks the supplemental link.

I’m not too thrilled with Jeff Merkeley’s talking filibuster reform. It’s not enough, and will merely take the Senate back to the days of Jesse Helms and Wm Byrd — not referring to ideology there, but process. And talk, we’ll hear. There’s no guarantee that obstructionism will not continue, which means it will.

It would be better for Reid & Co to be a hard ass about this, and geld filibuster firmly and completely. Do it with 51+ votes on the first day if need be. Just get it done.

I’m afraid Merkeley’s plan will do little more than fend off that day of reckoning. Half a loaf, etc. . .

A saucer of milk is only for the cat nowadays, not running things. If 51 senators feel they are ready to vote, let them do so, and accept accountability.

So, it seems people are decorating dinosaur food for the holidays. That’s a different way of looking at it.

I do hope the campsite turns out to be Scott’s. That’d be nice all for everybody.

Now, abut that Loris. Imagine how scary it would be if it were a fast Loris. And how does it transmit the venom? Like a rattlesnake does or through its mucous or what? Actually, maybe it’d be just as well I don’t know. I’m just glad it’s slow.

That thing about children and the teevees just leaves me speechless. I despair.

It’ll be interesting to see what they do, won’t it, maa8722? Apparently, at least according to the article, Reid seems to like it. Merkley’s stepping up to the plate lately. His name just kept popping up today while I was out there searching for news items. I do hope he follows through on his recognition of the “Too Big to Jail” phenomenon. I haven’t seen any polls on that recently, have you? It’d be interesting to see how many people agree with his sentiments.

Back during my folkie days, I played the guitar a bit (we needn’t embarrass me by going into how well I played it), but I kept thinking today about having to deal with a sitar and the moveable frets. Oh, my!

The sitar’s moveable frets must serve a purpose needed by its complex music, and mindful of the dearth of strings. Yesterday I recall reading that there were only three pluckable strings plus a fourth nearby (within the neck of the instrument) which would “ring” sympathetically in harmony with what was played.

The moveable frets, I think, must provide a lot of potential extra notes needed by each of the few sitar strings. That feature would not be needed on a guitar (or a lute) with fixed frets but more strings. I have seen lutes with anywhere from nine to seventeen strings (some look unplayable), and some lutes with no frets at all (guesswork galore for the player?).

I looked for sitar CDs yesterday on eBay. Lots of 60s era LPs there, and few CDs. I’m on a roll though and must look further.

My recent musical mystery is how slide trombonists know what note they are playing. Don’t know anything about that instrument, but recently went to a concert where some played. Doesn’t seem to be any marker on slide to denote the note. My friend who attended with me conferred in my puzzlement.

Heh, maybe Dinosaurs were decorating them with ancient mammal carcases for their holidays. That’s a nice, crackheaded thought.

I think it’s a case of bad taste in the mouth poisoning. The taste of sweat is terrible, imagine licking poison glands. Still, a fast Loris would scare the hell out of those scientists. Imagine them trying to catch it for study only to find themselves being attacked by the diamond back of the trees.

Why, yes, I am feeling better, thank you for noticing. Only a few scabbing scars and a little weakness left of my surgery. It’s good to be young and have the surgery, minus complications. Thanking my lucky stars is a new hobby.

I’m not sure how O plans to “recriminalize” MJ in CO and WA, since MJ was never decriminalized there (or anywhere else) in the first place — at least not in the Federal sense.

All the states did was to withdraw most of their own law enforcement efforts from the MJ regime. The Fed regime never changed one iota.

What’s significant, however, would be the level to which the Feds have relied upon the states and locals to enforce what is essentially the Fed anti-drug policy. Absent state and local involvement, what are the Feds to do to protect that policy?

I would guess O has some options, but none of them would be practical or winners politically. The Feds could curtail certain financial supports for recalcitrant states. Or the Feds could flood MJ-friendly states with Fed agents to fill in the enforcement gap. Or the Feds could federalize state and local law enforcement and force them to levy Fed policy and laws even when they are contrary to state and local law.

Maybe there are still more bad options out there for O to choose from. It’ll be interesting to watch what happens next.

“After a delay of nearly two months owing to a technical glitch, the Air Force’s secretive X-37B space plane blasted off again from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop an Atlas rocket on Tuesday.

The launch starts the third mission in three years for the robotic X-37 fleet, assembled in Boeing’s now-shuttered Building 31 in Huntington Beach, California, for an estimated $1 billion apiece. But for all the time spent in orbit by the two school bus-size spacecraft — 693 days in all — it’s no more clear today precisely what the Air Force has been up to with the X-37s.”

“States rights” is a loaded term, used inconsistently, and problematic, I’m afraid. We all know how the far right uses it.

But there are other uses, which might better search out another term. Certainly the Feds have purview over MJ and “drugs” as well as proxies of such. But wherever (if anywhere) the Feds can force the states to help the Feds enforce is ultimately a political dilemma coyly cloaked in legalisms.

We’ll see how effective the Feds are in forcing all states and localities to participate in the “secure communities” immigration program. They must all participate, it is not optional, and they won’t all do so. MJ enforcement efforts should be just as interesting, however it plays out.

For the life of me, I can’t understand the Obama Administration’s obsession with MJ. It’s not like there are any votes in prosecuting co and WA. Allthe states where people really care are deep red states anyway. The only explanation I can come up with is that the resistance is coming from deep inside DOJ drom people whose careers are tied up in the ‘war on drugs’ and who have close ties with congress, close enough to blackmail the administration. Nothing else makes any sense.

On Stanstead QC. Our country house is in Stanstead, and I run over to Derby Line almost every Saturday to arbitrage the gap in Quebec and Vermont gas prices. The highway from Fitch Bay to the toen runs right on the line, US houses on one side of the street and Canadian ones on the other. I always wondered what would happen if someone’s dog got loose and ran across the street. Would a person be arrested for chasing it down?

There are three border crossings within 4 kilometers: a tiny one at Beebe Plain and two in Stanstead proper (formerly Rock Island). One is on I-91, which is the big one where the semis and tourist traffic goes through. The other is the one in the video. It has been recently discovered by people who smuggle illegal immigrants into Canada, which is the main reason for the uptick in security. About a month ago the Canadiangovernment put up a new barrier on the side of the road leading into the Unted States, which the smugglers would race through in the middle of the night to avoid Customs and Immigration. Otherwise the traffic seems about normal, though there are occasional ‘excesses of zeal’ on the US side.

I also blame residual DLC thinking. People in DC think it’s still the 1980s, and suburban soccer moms are scared witless about pot turning their kids into brain-damaged slackers. (They’re more worried about their kids living at home until age 30 because they’re saddled by student loans and can’t find a better job than restocking merchandise at Kohl’s.) There’s also the problem of government admitting that it made a colossal mistake in devoting so many justice-system resources to a failed attempt to enforce marijuana prohibition.

An article on one Canadian jailed for getting gas at a station a few feet in Maine–which everyone had been doing for decades in the small border town, where the border office which is a long drive away anyway, and closes at 2 pm.

In the town in question, the border actually runs through people’s houses.

And the Canadian in question who was 20 feet in the US–it was partridge season, so he had a shotgun in his pickup and to add to that, he had been arrested for burglary as a juvenile. He was charged with multiple felonies, but I believe he got released after a few weeks.

What is the frigging matter with U.S.ians. The ones quoted in your link don’t really think DPRK is any threat to anyone, do they? A bomb with a return addy? Nuts. And from a country that was bombed to the stone age by the U.S. during the Korean war?

Many thanks for your first-hand report, Knut. The part about arresting people on the sidewalk got to me the most, I think. I just hope the people of the towns are able to keep their traditional community spirit intact.

But at some point since O took office I think the PTB felt MJ liberalization was still a net loser — or might be. An unexpected incident somewhere could provide a “There!, You See!?” moment for O’s opponents. The risk might be a bit much for any cautious imagination to bear.

Also, the old, “natural” French Horn. . . It has no valves, and is very hard to play. The pitch can only be controlled by the placement of a fist in the front of the horn and the air pressure blown through the horn. But what a beautiful sound it makes!

I suppose the valves were added at some point for the wusses who couldn’t play the old instrument.

I have a CD of the Brahms and Mozart Horn Trios using a natural French Horn. It’s among my favorites.